My name is Ben, I'm a TA at the University of Arizona, I love puns and I'm Mormon.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

I Stand Resolute

On New Year's Eve I got together with eight of my friends to embark on a quest to find the best French fry and shake in the area. We split up into teams of three and went to different restaurants buying fries and a shake from each one. My team was called the Crafty Stallions because Vu and I are stallions and Becky likes to do crafts. We all met up at Vu's house and tried all the fries and shakes to determine which one was the best. I feel that the best fry comes from XXX Burger in Issaquah and the best shake is the Oreo shake from Jack in the Box. We bought way too much food and could not finish it all. The main flaw in the plan was that we couldn't eat the food until we were all together at Vu's place and ended up with a lot of cold, soggy fries and melted shakes. It was still fun, though.

Time for New Year's resolutions. Every year I hear people say things like, "New Year's resolutions are a waste of time because no one ever keeps them." To those negative Nancys I say, "You obviously haven't met Ben Schilaty." For the last few years I've chosen three goals and then have done them all year. Last year my first two goals were to read my scriptures everyday and to write in my journal everyday. I was already basically doing those things so they weren't too much of stretch. My third goal, however, was quite a stretch. I decided to make my bed everyday which I knew would be tough since I never made my bed. There were a few days where I was running late and thought, crap, I still need to make my bed. I managed to stick to each of my three goals last year and I feel that I'm a better person for it (and my room always looks a little cleaner, too! And I have a very detailed record of my life in 2011).

I have three goals for 2012. They are 1) memorize one scripture a week, 2) cook a meal for someone else once a week, and 3) run a marathon. I decided to memorize a scripture a week because of Elder Scott's last conference talk. You can read it by clicking here (I find Elder Scott a little too soothing to listen to and prefer to read them). The cooking goal stems from my desire to learn how to cook. I can prepare food for myself, but I really wouldn't call it cooking and it's about time that I became a full-fledged adult and learned to cook. As for the marathon, I've wanted to run a marathon for years and now is the time to finally do it. I haven't gone running since May so it will take quite a bit of training. All in all, I'm super-excited about my 2012 goals.

In 2010 I decided to have a theme song and my theme song for that year was I Get Around by the Beach Boys ("getting around" referring to going places) and I sadly didn't pick a theme song for 2011. However, looking back I think the best song would have been Me Party from The Muppet Movie. I had a blast in 2011, but spent more time alone than usual. After much deliberation with my brain I've decided that Make 'Em Laugh from Singin' in the Rain will be my theme song for 2012. I picked that song because no matter what happens this year I hope it's funny and that I can make others laugh along the way. Making people laugh is pretty easy. Fart! Poop! Stink! See? Making you laugh (or cringe) was easy. Happy 2012!